Where players gain from matching and lose from mismatching, the problem is not conflict but selecting among equally good conventions.
The choice of railway gauge, keyboard layout or date format matters only in that everyone makes the same choice. Schelling's focal points are the mechanism by which one is selected without negotiation.
In practice
- Whether meetings start on the hour or five past matters far less than whether everyone uses the same rule.
- Two teams agreeing to write dates one way, either way, saves more than a year of argument about which way is better.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Games & Strategic Interaction
- Essay
- The recurring shapes of conflict and cooperation